Takeout

After a long day at work and an evening workout, Sandra Moore-Cazel and her husband, Ed, weren't up for cooking Friday, so they grabbed a quick meal to go: red snapper with porcini mushrooms and fontina cheese, stuffed summer squash and leeks vinaigrette.And sometimes when bankers convene for working lunches in downtown Orlando, they get their lunches in brown bags filled with stuffed croissants, fresh fruit and chocolate crunch cookies.The Moore-Cazels' dinner and the bankers' lunches are meals aimed at a new category of takeout customers: people who have a taste for fine food, but lack the time or energy to fix their own.Sandra Moore-Cazel, for instance, loves to cook, but on nights when she works late or has a racquetball game, she just goes by Strollo's Cucina 554, a new Winter Park takeout shop.

Tips on tipping Here are some guidelines for what experts suggest are appropriate amounts for tips: Sit-down restaurants: From 15 percent to 25 percent before taxes, depending on how good the service was. Counter service (known in the industry as fast casual): There's no obligation to tip, but you can throw in spare change or up to $2 if you're a regular or get extra service. Takeout: Tips aren't necessary unless there's extra service such as curbside delivery. Then tip 10 percent.

A proposed 1-cent litter tax on takeout bags from fast-food restaurants was revived Wednesday by the Senate Finance, Taxation and Claims Committee.The panel voted 8-1 to restore the tax, which had been removed by another committee, to a far-ranging recycling bill (CS-SB 962) before approving the measure 9-1. It next goes to the Appropriations Committee. A companion House bill does not include a similar tax.The money would be used to pay for state and litter cleanup efforts and anti-litter advertising and education.

It's time for Takeout Thursday. Where you the viewers serve up the topic du jour. And today's topic is probably on a lot of your minds with Labor Day around the corner. Viewer Jamee poses the question, which even I'm asking: "Can you wear white after Labor Day?" I was raised old school where you never wore white after Labor Day or before Memorial Day . But are times changing? I decided to get some fashion expertise on the matter. Maurielle Balczon with The Fashion Group International of Houston, Inc . serves up her advice on white: "Style is one's own sense of authenticity expressed through a visual, tangible medium.

Call off the Muffin Police. Patrons at the Dolphin Cafe in Baxter Estates are now free to take their coffee and pastries to go, after the village's Board of Zoning Appeals lifted a prohibition on takeout at the cafe. Dolphin Bookshop owner Patricia Vunk, who also owns the cafe inside the bookstore's Main Street location, said the restriction had been a difficult one to follow. "We didn't understand how we were supposed to function. What if somebody eats only half of their food?"

After finishing a 12-hour shift, bus driver Dan Lydic often heads to his neighborhood Publix to pick up dinner. Bone-tired and in no mood to cook, the 46-year-old Orlando resident goes straight to the store's deli section to grab a bag of either rotisserie or fried chicken. "I'm a bachelor, and this saves me from cooking," Lydic said on a recent weekday evening after snagging an eight-piece fried-chicken meal at the Publix on East Colonial Drive. "And I don't like to wash dishes," he added.

Those who work up an appetite while logged on to the AOL computer service can soon order pizza or perhaps Chinese food without picking up the phone. In a statement Tuesday, America Online Inc. said its Internet online services unit has a four-year, $20 million deal with Cybermeals, an online takeout restaurant service. Under the agreement, Cybermeals will match customers logged onto AOL or visiting the AOL.com Web site with restaurants in their neighborhoods that feature home delivery.

I recently wanted to order some takeout food from the Forbidden City Chinese restaurant in Orlando, but I was going to be busy up until the time I wanted to pick up the food. That isn't such an odd situation - often I won't order the food until I arrive at the restaurant anyway.The problem is that sometimes small restaurants run out of your favorite dish and you're stuck getting something else. And in the case of Forbidden City, there really isn't a comfortable space to wait while the food is prepared.

By Scott Joseph of The Sentinel Staff and By Scott Joseph of The Sentinel Staff, November 30, 2000

A few weeks ago I told you about the takeout at Barney's Steak and Seafood. Until recently Barney's had refused to accept to-go orders. This time we visit another longtime takeout holdout that has given in to customer demand: Houston's. According to a manager at the popular Winter Park restaurant, the no-to-go policy was corporatewide. But after so many customers kept begging for takeout, local managers decided eight months ago to give it a try. The experiment has worked so well that all Florida Houston's now offer takeout.

You know, just about any restaurant will prepare food to go if you ask real nicely. But very few will deliver the food to your front door even if you say ''Pretty please with sugar on top.''That doesn't mean you have to get in your car and drive to the restaurant. You could just call a taxi. But you don't want the everyday variety Yellow Cab; you want the Takeout Taxi.Takeout Taxi is a franchise operation that has been working the area for about 15 months. The concept is simple: Through arrangements with area restaurants, Takeout Taxi will take your order, call it in to the restaurant of your choice, pick it up and deliver it to you piping hot. The taxi company publishes a list of participating restaurants and their menus so you can order as if you were there in person.

It's another helping of Takeout Thursday, where viewers serve up the hot topic du jour. On the menu courtesy of Keith: "Would you date someone your family didn't like? I cannot stand my brothers girlfriends but I tolerate them. " See what I had to serve up on this hot topic. Could you date someone your family didn't approve of? Get in on the dish. Send me your tweets: twitter.com/maggiesworld or emails: maggie@39online.com or comment on the Online Dish Facebook fan page.

Call off the Muffin Police. Patrons at the Dolphin Cafe in Baxter Estates are now free to take their coffee and pastries to go, after the village's Board of Zoning Appeals lifted a prohibition on takeout at the cafe. Dolphin Bookshop owner Patricia Vunk, who also owns the cafe inside the bookstore's Main Street location, said the restriction had been a difficult one to follow. "We didn't understand how we were supposed to function. What if somebody eats only half of their food?"

LEESBURG -- City officials debated this week whether firefighters returning from emergency calls should stop off at local eateries to pick up meals for themselves. In a 3-2 decision, commissioners reverted to a former city policy, effectively allowing firefighters to use the department's ladder trucks to stop for food during their shifts. Late last year, City Manager Jay Evans changed the internal policy so that members of the department had to return the large trucks between calls and use a smaller vehicle to get food.

MOUNT DORA -- Not only does Ivory's Take-Out provide home-cooked meals, but residents say the startup restaurant has brightened their business district, commonly called East Town. The breakfast, lunch and dinner takeout at 1325 N. Grandview St. has a menu filled with American and Southern-style favorites such as hamburgers, cheeseburgers, fries, pork chops, hot dogs, fried chicken, hot chicken wings, spaghetti, cheese-steak sandwiches and fish sandwiches. Ivory's serves red snapper and tilapia, even at breakfast.

Is your family one of the 46 percent that confessed in a national survey that they eat a home-cooked dinner just two to three times a week? What are you eating the other four or five nights? We're guessing takeout, because survey after survey and study after study tells us so. It seems like such a time-saver to stop by Boston Market or your favorite Chinese restaurant on the way home, doesn't it? Then, when you get home, you and the family can just flop on the couch and eat. So is time the reason you choose takeout?

Be it the sweet mashed potatoes or the turkey dinner, Thanksgiving is a popular day at McCormick & Schmick's in Orlando. In fact, the first request for a reservation came in three months ago. "A lot of our regulars come in for Thanksgiving dinner," general manager Jennifer Gaydeski said. "On Thanksgiving, it's pretty much just steady all day long." Traditionally a cook-at-home holiday, Thanksgiving has become big business for restaurants. About half of Americans rely on takeout for at least part of their Thanksgiving dinners, according to a 2004 survey by the National Restaurant Association.

OK, you've heard your friends talking about the takeout food they enjoy, how it has simplified their lives and given them back precious time they would have otherwise squandered shopping at the grocery store and slaving over a stove and/or microwave oven. And you're thinking, ''Gosh, I'd really like to get in on this takeout cuisine thing, but I just don't know how to get started.''Well, here are some tips for you novice takeouters - and some reminders for you old-timers.First of all remember that takeout food is supposed to help you save time.

Laurie Samulonis knew she had a good idea when she started a gourmet takeout shop last April. What she didn't know was how good. Within six months of opening the doors of Lola's Gourmet to go, the former schoolteacher's business grew from a staff of one -- herself, plus some help from a friend -- to eight employees. "It was insane," Samulonis recalls. "The volume here just exploded." Although growth is something every start-up business dreams of, there can be too much of a good thing.

After finishing a 12-hour shift, bus driver Dan Lydic often heads to his neighborhood Publix to pick up dinner. Bone-tired and in no mood to cook, the 46-year-old Orlando resident goes straight to the store's deli section to grab a bag of either rotisserie or fried chicken. "I'm a bachelor, and this saves me from cooking," Lydic said on a recent weekday evening after snagging an eight-piece fried-chicken meal at the Publix on East Colonial Drive. "And I don't like to wash dishes," he added.

Laurie Samulonis knew she had a good idea when she started a gourmet takeout shop last April. What she didn't know was how good. Within six months of opening the doors of Lola's Gourmet to go, the former schoolteacher's business grew from a staff of one -- herself, plus some help from a friend -- to eight employees. "It was insane," Samulonis recalls. "The volume here just exploded." Although growth is something every start-up business dreams of, there can be too much of a good thing.